Last week, more than 6,000 people gathered for the Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco, CA to share leading strategies for combating climate change and to declare their own commitments to saving life as we know it. The Summit brought together diplomatic leaders, issue specialists and, importantly, both public and private investors dedicated to aligning their assets with their values.
Declaring exemplary leadership, California Governor Jerry Brown signed SB 100, committing to 100% renewable electricity for California by 2045, and joined 17 states in the U.S. Climate Alliance, committed to the Paris climate goals under the “We’re Still In” campaign begun by New York City’s Mayor Bloomberg. Meanwhile, the Divest-Invest campaign announced that nearly 1,000 institutional investors, representing over $6.2 trillion have pledged to divest from fossil fuels and to invest in climate solutions. And on Friday, September 14th, the last day of the Summit, 29 foundations came together to collectively declare their grant commitments totaling $4 billion for emission reductions and climate resilience programs.
Confluence Philanthropy was among hundreds of organizations that organized affiliate sessions at the Summit, and among the countless organizations to host additional private events that week. Among these, Confluence co-hosted a Climate Investor Cocktail Party in partnership with Autodesk Foundation, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, The Penney Family Fund and the SRI team at RBC Wealth Management. Our goal for the night: bring like-minded investors together to help navigate the program-packed week. Almost 150 investors, representatives from foundations and family offices, as well as sustainable investment managers and impact funds, gathered at Barbarossa Lounge to sip climate-themed cocktails and share their hopes for the summit and compare agendas for the days ahead.
The cocktail party was also a great forum to highlight Confluence’s two affiliate sessions, taking place the next day. These sessions, one focused on Blended Finance, the other on Energy Access, were hosted by the Climate Solutions Collaborate (C2C), a working group of Confluence Philanthropy and CREO Syndicate. C2C’s members are accelerating the flow of capital to address climate change by committing to deploy $3 billion in private and philanthropic capital by 2025.
